Stallman family from Oldenberg, Germany to Iowa and South Dakota

Parents:   Clement and Bernadina     
Siblings:  Clemens Anton    Mary Bernadina Clementina     Joseph     Theodore A.     Anna    Emma Josephine     Angeline Frances    Clemens Frank    Bernadine Louise    Victoria Julie

Clemens Anton and Anna Mary Schelle-Stallman

Anna and Clem's  wedding day, 3 Sep 1900, Carroll, Iowa

                          Revised Saturday, July 17, 2010        Photos from Victoria's collection

Sept. 3, 1900, he married Anna Mary Schelle in the presence of Josephus Stallmann and Trena Berning by the Rev. P.J. O'Connor in the Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Carroll, Iowa. In July of 1900, for some unexplained reason, they were apart and a note he had sent to her reads: Breda, Iowa,   July 18, 1900  "Miss Schelle, I am alone, my love has gone, no fond goodbye makes of my life forever more, one long drawn sigh."  Clemens A. Stallman. 

They farmed in Iowa and Minnesota until moving to a farm southeast of Reliance in Lyman County, SD, coming overland  in the spring of 1910. Upon reaching the Missouri River they were allowed to cross, probably by ferry, but had to leave their wagons and belongings behind overnight. Victoria said many of their belongings were stolen that night. By the time the family came to Lyman County, it had grown to include six children. They moved into a two-bedroom, tarpaper house built for them by Grandma's father. Eventually, two more rooms were added to accommodate the growing family.

Anna Schelle was born Jan. 8, 1880 at Breda to Frank Joseph and Maria Anna BERNING Schelle. She had one sister, Maria Anna, and a brother, Joseph (I think). Grandma's mother passed away in 1884 and soon after, Anna Maria, Grandma's sister, also passed away, as did her brother, leaving father and daughter alone.   See SCHELLE FAMILY elsewhere.

Back: Leona and Ray. Seated, l-r: Marie, Lawrence, Paul, Albert, Victoria. Frank was probably at work and Grandma was probably inside giving birth to Frances.
Taken at stone house east end of Plankinton, ca 1917

Lawrence, Henry, Victoria, Frances, Marie, Leona
ca 1976, taken at Kiwanis Park, Sioux Falls, SD

Children of Clem and Anna are: Frank Joseph  married Regina ROEDER;   Victoria Clementina  never married;    Lawrence John  married Ida HATTING; Paul Ambrose  ;   * Albert Theodore   married Anna BLACK;   Leona Josephine   married Joe VOSS;   Raymond Clement ;   Marie Catherine   married Herman HATTING;   Frances Ann   married Lawrence NANNEMAN;   Henry Edward  married Katherine (Katie) THELEN

The farmland amounted to 240 acres three miles southeast of Reliance. Clem also had 80 acres southwest of their farm (as found in the 1911 Lyman County Atlas.) Papers I have show that Grandma's father, F.J. Schelle, came to South Dakota and purchased the land for them. When they came to Lyman County, he gave them things like one bull, six cows, a few pigs, chickens, wagon, team of horses, a harness, plow, etc.; everything needed to start farming.
Of course, these were all itemized along with the cost to be paid to FJ.  There were eventually several letters back and forth over who owed whom what and the hours Grandpa and his sons worked for FJ to help pay for these things. These are in my possession and I will post them as time allows. (As of January, 2009, I now have unlimited free space and can add more items. barbara)

Times were very hard and there was the drought in the summer and the lack of fire wood for heat in the winter. They raised cattle, pigs and chickens.  Several letters Clem and Anna had written to her father were regarding the seriousness of the conditions in Lyman County and their struggle just to exist. Within five years of their arrival in Lyman County, Clem became a Rawleigh salesman, peddling his wares, first from his team and open buggy, then with his box-style wagon and eventually moving up to his 1935 Model KC Dodge Express truck. His territory extended to as far east as Plankinton (Aurora County.) Anna and her children worked the farm until they followed him to White Lake for a few years. The children started school there and the family were members of the Catholic church. They returned to the farm in 1918.

Victoria tells me that during their absence from the farm, it was rented out to a Peterson family. Somehow or the other, the big barn burned to the ground. Speculation had it that the sun reflecting off a piece of glass caused the fire. Years later they learned that the Peterson boys were having trouble getting a stubborn hen off her nest, so they decided to set the nest on fire to scare her off!

Grandpa raised White Rock hens and Chester White boars. According to an ad found in a Reliance paper, he "has one of the best herds in the state of South Dakota, the get of Clemie Boy No. 19497, and he by Lewis E. No. 13707, and out of such sows as Lady A and White Rose. The greatest hog of the breed since 1909."  He was also a breeder of Percherons and his team was one of the teams to help string REA lines across Lyman County along with other men with teams. 

As was the norm in those times, all of the Stallman children attended North Cooper School until the eighth grade when they left school to go to work to supplement the family income. The  young men worked for farmers and such and the young women worked as baby sitters/housekeepers, etc. As soon as they were old enough they moved to Iowa or Minnesota to work for family there. This was a standard practice for many families during these hard times. I  remember my father telling me how the boys at the school burned down the horse shelter. The parents of these boys rebuilt it, but after the boys burned it down a second time, they had to rebuild it. The school was a mile or so away from their farm and walking to school was the only option open to those who didn't have horses to ride. I never heard any of them talk about having a horse to ride. Children walked everywhere.

Grandma always had a big garden out across the yard from the house. The garden had a fence around it ( I suppose to keep the chickens out.) Until I die, I will see Grandma (in my mind's eye) as she stood out in that garden in her dress and apron,  hip-slung, wiping the sweat from her brow as she paused from hoeing the weeds with a vengeance. Us kids, (the potato bug extermination crew,) were given small cans with kerosene in them into which we dropped the potato bugs we picked off the potato plants as we crawled along the rows and rows.

I don't remember Grandpa being there much, but then, as I write this, I guess us kids moved out there after he passed away. I do remember that I was very fascinated by his "medicine bag" and knew he was the guy who furnished the wonderful nectar we drank (before cool-aid). I can taste the nectar as I write.  I remember how he would slip a nickel under my plate to get me to say the blessing at the dinner table. Then there was the time he was out working in the garage and I went out to be with him. He told me to feed the chicks some of the crushed oyster shells from a bag leaned up against the wall. Happy to have a chore to do for Grandpa, I put my hand into the sack and the hot, searing pain hit my thumb. When I jerked my hand from the bag I was horrified to find a mouse attached to my thumb! Thank God Grandpa was there to be my hero and save me from that mouse. He probably even put some of his medicine from his bag onto my thumb. The poor mouse probably ran off into a corner and passed away from a coronary!

Grandma's hair. What beautiful hair she had. I would just watch in amazement as she stood in the middle of the room and unpinned the small bun on top of her head. Then she would lean forward and this mass of white hair would unwind to the point of reaching the floor in front of her. To brush it she would run the brush down as far as as she could reach, then she would pull the remaining hair up through the brush. When she was finished she would wind this mass back into a small bun on top of her head. Held there by no more than three tortoise shell hair pins. Never in my wildest imagination could I figure out how she got all of that hair into that small bun.

In 1950 or 1951, my sisters, Frances, Peggy and Sandy, and brother, Eddie, and I were placed in the care and custody of Grandma Stallman, but Aunt Victoria was the caregiver after our mother left. I cannot imagine a mother actually abandoning her children, but it does happen. Nor can I imagine one day, out of the clear blue, becoming totally responsible for five children ages nine to one. In any event, the house was suddenly filled with children and it was not a happy home. I know now that it was not a happy home before the children arrived, but their arrival certainly didn't improve life in that house.

There was no love shown to anyone ... anytime. I remember when they had a family reunion and the Iowa and Minnesota families arrived, there was no meeting them at the door. Those inside waited for the new arrivals to walk into the house then there was a slight acknowledgement with a nod and insignificant greeting ... ("Mom") ... "Lawrence") ... Then of course, children were herded outdoors to be let in again only at meal time, then it was back outside. "Children should be seen and not heard." Laughter? No, not much of that, either, unless Aunt Frances came around and she was the 'wild and crazy' one. But hugging and teasing each other? Not that I ever saw ... but then, I guess they did that while we were outside ... not

As did all farm families back then, all food was raised and grown then canned or preserved; enough to last throughout the winter. They butchered their own meat, rendered their own lard, stored root vegetables in cellars. Wild berries were picked for jams, jellies, pies, cobblers, etc. Water was hauled up from the dam in two or three 55-gallon drums set on a "stone boat."  This mode of transportation was a floor on skids (to hold the barrels) and pulled by  the tractor. Water for household use was hauled in and stored in a concrete cistern. I remember when my maternal grandmother, Esther Black, married Bill Morgan, they had their cistern water piped to a manual pump inside their home (in Reliance) forever ending the frozen water problems. How wonderful to be able to go to the pump, prime it and get water from the cistern without having to go outdoors! I fell in that cistern one time, but someone got to me in time

Grandma Stallman's cellar was the scariest place on earth, until I'd get down there. I hated the dirt walls and dark, damp room. The walls were lined with shelves of canned food and gunny sacks full of potatoes, turnips and other root vegetables sat along the wall on the floor. There was this HUGE (well, to me it was huge) iron furnace down there near the outside cellar door where wood or coal was shuttled down to be used for heat. In the living room up above was the 3x3 or maybe 4x4-foot iron grate on the floor for the heat to come up into the house. You only had to step on that grate one time to learn to never do it again!

They were devout Catholics. Walking the three miles to church when there was no other way to get there. Missing church was not an option. Grandpa was not always there to take them by team and buggy.

Grandpa passed away Nov. 11, 1947 after having a stroke (I think it was at Uncle Ray's Standard Service Station in Reliance, but it may have been in his garage on the farm.) I seem to remember he was reaching for something on a top shelf, or just pointing at something up there, when he was stricken. He was taken to the hospital and passed away the following Tuesday at Community Bailey Hospital in Chamberlain, Brule County, SD. Grandpa's funeral expenses: Services and casket-$569.00; outside box-15.00 and sales tax-8.76= $592.76

Grandma, Aunt Victoria and Uncle Paul remained on the farm until Grandma, too, had a stroke and passed away June 1, 1959, also at Community Bailey Hospital. She was buried alongside Grandpa in St. Mary's Catholic Cemetery north of Reliance.

Obituaries of Clemens and Anna

Paul and Victoria, along with Sandy and Eddie, remained on the farm until the crops were in and the estate was settled, then they each bought homes in Reliance where she continued to raise the two children. Paul passed away while in a nursing home in Mitchell, Davison County, SD and Victoria passed away in a nursing home in Sioux Falls, SD. Both are buried alongside their parents at Reliance.

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